The tourist country Italy

Italy has many magnificent tourist attractions like San Gimignano, Rome, Naples, Siena, Florence, Milan, Venice, Sorrento, Manarola, the leaning tower of Pisa, the Lake Como, Positano, Colosseum, Piazza del Campo, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ostia Antica, Santa Maria del Fiore, the canals of Venice, the Amalfi Coast, the Vatican, Capri, Ischia, Sicily, Portofino, Roman Forum, St Mark’s Basilica, St Peter’s Basilica, Via Appia Antica, the Pantheon, Paestum and Castel del Monte.Italy has also many secrets that very few tourists know about. Before you decide to visit Italy as a tourist, please take a moment to find out whether this is a country whose economy and values you want to support. They way innocent and defenseless beings are treated tells a lot about a society. These news stories give you some information on how animals are treated in Italy.Please note that many of the images in the articles are very graphic.

NEWS FROM ITALY

Italy’s dog concentration camps – a lucrative source of income for criminals (source: Occupy for Animals)The Italian government and the EU pay shelters that are supposed to take care of stray animals. Instead, the animals are kept in overcrowded spaces with cement floors and tiled walls, neglected, many of them severely ill or with wounds, beaten and starved to death. The animals never get adopted, because they’re not wanted to. The more animals, the more money. The animals are kept alive with an absolute minimum of costs – even water is considered unneccessary. These shelters (in Italian ”canili lager”) are mostly run by the mafia or other criminals. Operators are paid about 5 euros per day per dog, so a shelter with 500 dogs can earn 75,000 euros per month.Read more

7 February 2015, NewsweekThe massacre of European songbirds is led by Italian hunters. Although illegal, up to one billion migratory birds are killed in Europe each year by humans, usually to be used as food ingredients, but also for fun. Songbirds are trapped with extremely cruel methods like nets and lime-sticks. Often Italian hunters travel to the Balcan countries which are on the route of the migrating birds. Even if the sale of wild birds in restaurants is banned in Italy, there’s no problem to get a bird dish under the counter.Read article

12 September 2014, The Daily MailMozzarella di Bufala Campana is protected by the EU, and it is by many considered a premium product. However, the conditions on many of the mozzarella farms in the Italian region Campania are shocking. The male calves cannot be used in the production chain, so they are simply left to starve to death – a death that takes two or three days. Some of the calves are drowned, others are thrown into stinking cesspits filled with urine and manure and are left there to die, other animals get a hammer blow to the head. Adult animals are being kept in horrific conditions in their own feces with untreated sores and overgrown hooves. The animals eat the grass growing on the soil under which large amounts of toxic substances have been illegally buried by the Camorra, the Naples mafia.Read article

15 July 2010, The New York TimesIn Southern Italy there’s a huge problem of stray dogs. In Campania there are 70,000 stray dogs excluding 9,000 dogs housed in local pounds (data from 2009). Each year, about 135,000 dogs are abandoned in Italy, often on motorways. There are numerous stray dogs roaming the streets of the archaeological site of Pompeii. Every May and October thousands of pilgrims come to pray at the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary, five minutes from the ruins. Many of these religious people leave their dogs behind when they departRead article

16 August 2006, IPS NewsItaly has not an animal loving culture. Animals are considered as objects that just can be thrown away when they’re no longer wanted. The abandonment of pets reaches its peak during the summer months when people go on vacation. Of the abandoned pets, 85% die within 20 days on the streets, often in traffic accidents. In Italy 280,000 dogs and cats die each year in traffic accidents. There are about 990 public animal shelters and 5,000 private animal shelters in Italy. The conditions in the shelters are abhorrent. The dogs are crowded together in small cages, they suffer from illnesses, sores, malnutrition and severe anxiety. Sometimes their vocal cords are burned to keep them from barking. They don’t receive veterinary care and are commonly mistreated. Up to 60% of the dogs die while staying at a private pound. There’s often no punishment for mistreating animals in Italy. Read article